Exhibit journey’s into life and times of famed plant explorer

A new exhibit on the early natural history explorer William Bartram is on display at the Macon County library.

The exhibit, “The 1775 Journey of William Bartram to Western North Carolina,” traces Bartram’s life and his keen observation of not only plant life, but of the people and places he encountered throughout his travels.

Bartram’s observations were published in 1791 as Bartram’s Travels, considered a classic of early American travel writing, influencing numerous naturalists as well as Romantic thinkers of the 19th century such as Henry David Thoreau, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The exhibit was created as part of a three-way collaboration between the WCU Mountain Heritage Center, the Highland Biological Station and the Cashiers Historical Society.

More in this category:

The Naturalist's Corner

The day after our water dance with manatees in Crystal River we headed across Florida to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. There we checked into our hotel, had a bite and napped, getting ready for a night time kayak excursion in Indian River Lagoon looking…

Back Then with George Ellison

Editor’s note: This Back Then column by George Ellison first appeared in the Feb. 15, 2012, edition of The Smoky Mountain News. Olive Tilford Dargan is fairly well known in literary circles as the author of From My Highest Hill (1941), a delightful collection of autobiographical…